Beautiful Monster
by LumosOrion
Summary: What had I done? Simon was dead, Piggy was dead, Ralph was somewhere on this island all by himself. I was suddenly encased by two arms encircling my being and pulling me into a hug. I looked up and found myself nose to nose with Ralph. RxJ


I was disgusting. I bent down and looked at my reflection in the calm ocean before sneering and throwing a rock at it. I managed to walk through probably miles of forest and trees before I came out on part of the beach which I had never seen before. It was so tranquil. There was a small mound of rocks near a small stream and a beautiful undisturbed beach ahead of me. I walked towards the rocks and sat with my back against them, pulling my knees up towards my chest. What had I done? Simon was dead, Piggy was dead, Ralph was somewhere on this island all by himself. I felt the hot tears pricking in the corners of my eyes and couldn't work up the energy to force them back as they fell down my cheeks. I moved around so I was sitting on the edge of the running stream and looked at my reflection once again. I slowly cupped my hands and scooped up some water and splashed it on my face, I watched in the water as my war paint started to run and splashed more on my face and hair until it was all gone. I used the ripped material I keep tied to my arm to dry my face off before looking up at the sky.

There was a flash out of the corner of my eye, but as I turned my head to see it, it had vanished. I shook my head thinking it was my imagination again but I saw something moving out the corner of my eye and jumped up.

"Whose there" I managed to ask.

There was no answer but the moving had stopped, I looked over the surrounding area before sitting back down again.

"Probably a pig" I muttered. "Come on man. Pull yourself together, stop letting your imagination get the better of yourself"

"Talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity you know" A smooth silky voice chuckled.

I jumped up and spun around to find myself looking into a pair of sky blue eyes. I stepped back wearily to see who it was and froze at who I was looking at. He was a lot taller than he had been when I last saw him, his fair blonde hair had grown and messier but they suited him, his skin was a beautiful bronze tan and he had freckles going across the bridge of his nose. I could see him looking me over with the same shocked expression. I had grown a lot also and my hair had been bleached a few shades lighter by the sun, I had tanned and did gain a few freckles in the process and he was obviously trying to match a name to a face by his facial expressions.

"R-Ralph?" I croaked.

"Jack!" He gasped taking a step back.

"Your alive" I breathed out in relief.

"I'm not joining your tribe Jack" He spat out glaring at me.

"Oh, that" I whispered turning and sitting back down again and looking at my reflection in the stream.

"Oh?" Ralph questioned crouching next to me and trying to see what I was so mesmerized by. "What are you looking at…?"

"I'm repulsive aren't I?" I hissed, picking up a rock next to me and throwing it into my reflection.

"Why are you here Jack?" Ralph asked rudely. "Shouldn't you be leading your precious tribe?"

"What tribe" I laughed spitefully. "How many years has it been?"

"Three years Jack, and nine months" Ralph replied.

"Half way during that second year myself and Roger had a disagreement," I told him. "Not over anything that could be settled, it was about one of the littluns, though they ain't little no more, the kid had stolen something off of Rodger. I can't remember what exactly it was but Roger was in a frenzy saying that we should kill the kid, sure we had given people punishments in the past but that was just inhumane and I told him that."

I wasn't sure why I was blurting all of this out to Ralph of all people but he actually was listening to me, not telling me to man up or anything just sitting there and taking everything I said in.

"He hated my response to it and even stabbed me at one point" I carried on, showing him the scar on my calf. "He walked out of the tribe for about two months before coming back and managing to turn everyone against me, since then I've been like you, trying to survive on my own."

"So you didn't allow anyone to kill the littluns in your tribe but you killed Simon and Piggy" Ralph said through gritted teeth.

"I'm a monster I know ok!" I cried out. "Everyone was involved in Simon's death though, we all were scared and frightened and maybe even insane but it was all our faults. Piggy's death I know was not my fault but if anyone ask I'll take the blame! It was Roger who killed Piggy, I never ordered him to either, I was just as shocked and horrified as you were when the rock was dropped on him"

I felt tears running down my cheeks at a rapid pace as I turned to face Ralph, he had a solemn look on his face but there was something in his eyes that I just couldn't interpret. I just turned myself away from him and walked back over and sat down where I had sat before. I hunched over and hugged my knees to my chest, hiding my face in my arms and letting the tears roll down my cheeks. I was suddenly encased by two arms encircling my being and pulling me into a hug. I looked up and found myself nose to nose with Ralph. He also had tears rolling down his cheeks but a small comforting smile on his lips.

"We all mess up more than once in our lives, everyone deserves to be forgiven" He told me smiling.

"Thank you" I whispered, though you couldn't hear it as I had hugged him back and put my head in the crook of his neck.

We sat there for God knows how long but we were so comfortable that we didn't care much about it. He was now idly raking his hand through my hair while we watched the sunset. I know it sounds very corny and cheesy but we both sort of silently agreed to ourselves that it felt like the right thing to do. I had clasped his hand in mine and was sort of fumbling around with our fingers, entwining them then intertwining them and so forth. When the sun finally set I sort of let out a breath and let my head fall on Ralph's shoulder while in a yawn.

"Its getting late," he stated. "Come with me"

I obeyed and slowly followed him, hands still clasped together, as he led me down the beach. We walked through a patch of waist high grass until he finally led to this beautiful clearing. It had a beautiful tree in the centre of it which seemed to have what looked like blossom on it, around it was so many exotic flowers and plants, and a beautiful patch of grass which looked so nice to lay on. He smiled at my reaction to the clearing and half pulled me over to a small rocky area where there was a small cave opening, we squeezed through and sat down inside.

"How did you find this place?" I asked in a sort of trance at the scenery,

"I was just wandering around the island and I heard your tribe so I ran and stumbled upon this place" He smiled. "I love it here, because its just like so tranquil and I can be in the opening or in the cave and I can still see the calming ocean and the beach"

I felt my eyelids grow heavy as I started to lean back against him, I felt a smile play on my lips as he didn't push me off, just lightly pushed me as he changed positions to make us both comfortable before I felt my back against his chest and his arms around me. He hugged me closer and I slipped my hand into his, letting my fingers slide in between his and yawn against his chest. As I felt sleep overwhelm me I heard him say something which will always make me smile.

"I don't know why I ever thought you were a monster Jack" He whispered.

When I woke up I could see the sun shining through the entrance, I slowly started to get up but froze when I felt arms tighten around me. I looked behind me to see Ralph sleeping soundly mumbling something incoherently in his sleep. I smiled and slowly pried his arms from around me before walking out and standing just at the entrance looking out onto the sea. I turned my gaze to the small clearing and was amazed by how the sun shone down between the branches giving it a beautiful effect. It was like…magic. I didn't even hear Ralph get up as he suddenly appeared next to me, rubbing his eye.

"Hey what's that?" He asked pointing to something.

"What?" I questioned turning to the direction he was pointing at.

I spun my head back to tell him there was nothing there but as I did my lips were captured by his own in a soft soothing kiss. He went to pull back but I stepped forward into the kiss and kissed him again, feeling that small spark go down my spine again and smiled. I pulled away and bit my lip looking up at him hopefully as he began to open his eyes.

"Wow" He whispered.

"You got that right" I told him smiling.

"You're beautiful, you know that?" He said, brushing a strand of hair away from my eye.

"No I'm a monster" I whispered.

"You're a beautiful monster" He smiled.

The space between us started to close again, as did both our eyes, until our lips met again. We both took a shaky step closer to each other and his hands rested on my hips and mine on his shoulders. No way did we want to end the kiss but we do need to breathe, as we parted Ralph leant his head forward until his forehead was resting against mine. I was looking into his beautiful blue eyes until I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head round and there, on the horizon was a military boat and emerged submarine.

"Ralph look!" I gasped pointing to the boats.

"Oh Lord!" He gasped, before breaking into a smile. "Come on Jack! We need to signal them over!"

We ran onto the beach and started jumping and waving madly, hoping to signal them over. Sure we probably looked like right fags doing this but I couldn't care less…we were going home. Wait. What about the others? What about Samneric? Percival? Roger? I span around to Ralph who looked at me with a worried and confused face.

"What? What's wrong?" He asked.

"The others" I whispered.

"Jack-" He started to say.

"They deserve to be rescued as well Ralph! You stay here, signal them over, I'll be right back I promise. Oh wait here's Piggy's spec's just in case" I told him throwing the glasses to him.

I ran through the whole length of the forestry until I found myself on that horribly familiar beach which I had grown to hate over these years. I ran all the way to Castle Rock and saw them all there, Roger sitting on that bloody rock looking conceited and cocky.

"OI!" I yelled, causing all their heads to turn to me.

"What do you want?" Roger snapped, jumping from his perch.

"Don't speak to me like that" I spat.

"Leave! You were banished remember?" Roger yelled turning his back to me.

"Sure but if any of you want to go home come with me" I shouted.

I ran down the beach and barely seconds later I could hear the pounding footsteps of the tribe behind me. I ran through the forestry and finally came out and found Ralph standing on the beach talking to a Military officer, Samneric were the first to make it through and they stood either side of me, smiling widely. The rest of the boys finally came out and all started to cry, I just ran towards Ralph and the Military officer with tears of joy rolling down my cheeks. Ralph turned around just as I got over and he managed to catch me. He gave me a huge smile and hugged me hard, I hugged him back and just laughed into his shoulder.

"Why are you laughing?" He asked with a smile.

"Because I'm happy!" I replied chuckling. "I never thought we would actually get rescued and look at us now!"

"Who's this Ralph?" the officer in front of us asked.

"This is Jack, he was my co-chief" Ralph smiled. "and my best friend, Dad"

"This is your dad?" I gasped.

"Yeah, I told you he was in the Military" Ralph smirked.

"Hello Jack" Ralph's dad greeted. "I hear you and Ralph have been looking after one another"

"Yeah, I trust him with my life" I smiled at Ralph while answering his dad.

"Good to hear" Ralph's dad smiled. "Call me Frank,"

"RALPH!" two voices yelled.

Not a moment later the twins Samneric had launched themselves onto Ralph and were hugging him…no wait suffocating him with love. They let go and Ralph took in a deep breath and they began talking. Soon we had boarded onto the ship and I stood at the stern, watching our island get smaller and smaller before disappearing completely. I heard footsteps behind me and momentarily froze as a body was pressed against mine and two arms appeared next to mine. I tilted my head up slightly to see Ralph smiling down at me.

"Good Riddance eh?" He smiled.

"We entered it as boys-"

"-and left it as men" Samneric said appearing near us.

"Found our true selves while we were there" Bill whispered.

"True meanings of friends and enemies" Roger added.

"In other words a fuck all island" I shrugged making all the boys around us laugh.

I smiled up at Ralph as all the boys dispersed and went their own ways, I looked around us to check the coast before planting a quick kiss on Ralph's lips then going back to how we were standing before. Sure I hated the island with all my being but it gave me an experience I would never forget. I would call it a second home to me, though nobody on this ship liked it…at all it all helped us learn things about one another and find things about ourselves that would have been lost if not for that experience. We all found our own beast on that island but I know that I left mine there as well.

Jack Merridew 1933-2011


End file.
